Trump and Putin: dividing up the world. Did you vote for this?

Update: 12/12/2025.In February 1945, at the Yalta conference, the US, UK, USSR, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met and came to an agreement that virtually divided the world into two and led to the Cold War for the next 45 years...The USSR claimed Eastern Europe as its sphere of influence, and the Iron Curtain descended within a few months. Roosevelt had died soon after Yalta. Trump is now telling Western Europe and Eastern Europe both, even they are in the sphere of Russian influence. There will be no help from the US. This takes us back to the early 1900s, even worse than the Yalta catastrophe. What happened in 1914 and 1939 was the result. Here we are again in 2025, repeating history. and the stupidity of the isolationists of the past century. Trump has succeeded in de facto destroying the NATO Atlantic alliance, a further echo and potential repeat of the tragedy of the last century. Scroll down for the original post and earlier updates..

Through various reports, Guardian among them, Trump is considering abandoning Ukraine. That is only one issue.. In a so-called American First ideology, Trump is cutting most ties with Western Europe as well. He has already been subverting NATO and its mutual defense purpose and now there is no burden sharing of armaments with Europe. NATO now only exists in issues of nuclear defense..Welcome to the 1938 version of America First.  How did that turn out?

The sad thing about this post is, like in 1938, American citizens did not give a darn of what happened in Europe, and America First isolationism held heavy political inflence is...until Pearl Harbor. The rest of historyis about is US's blood and treasure in World War II. I fear we are about to make the tremendous miscalculation that US defense is not also connected to Europe, with our economic ties and culture, even more entwined than in 1938. If war breaks out in Europe beyond the boundaries of Ukraine, just maybe the uneducated and naive American Firsters may wake up...when it is too late.

Trump is threatening Western Europe with repercussions if it funds Ukraine's defense with Russian funds in Western banks. In December, 2025, the EU defied American pressure and ensured that Hungary and Slovakia cannot veto their use of the funds to help Ukraine. EU triggers emergency clause to indefinitely immobilise Russian assets | Euronews

What Trump is in effect doing he is leaving the sphere of influence across the Atlantic to Russia by his own edict and orders. He recently shifted our Mediterranean fleet from Europe to near Venezuela..., indicating the US sphere of influence is solely the Western Hemisphere. Trump appears to demand Ukraine surrender to Russia's "peace plan" or "'else", terms that will eventually lead to Russia taking over all of that country. This is a striking spoken alliance of Trump and Putin, cutting out Western Europe. In 2026, Trump is laying the groundwork, many fear, to hand Ukraine on a silver platter to Russia, whose stated goal is to reassemble the USSR influence over the countries they lost when the Berlin Wall fell. This is not what America signed up for in 2024, but it is what Trump is actually doing by his actions, deeds, and words.

Back to days even I remember, WWII. It is also repeating history. It is the isolationism that led to WWII, as Japan and Germany thought and miscalculated on the US's resolve to remain isolated. Germany had counted on pro Nazi and American Firsters, who were US politicians, to influence its support for Germany or remain neutral. It is now like 1938 when the UK prime minister handed over part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler and proclaimed it was peace in our time.

Trump thinks he is a dictator and he can get away with this as Congress sleeps an/ord bows down to him, and any violation of laws and the Constitution is no longer punishable thanks to the gift of immunity by "his" 6-3 Supreme Court. What fools we are to tolerate this.

Europe also sees Trump and Putin's contempt of them, reinforcing Trump's disdain of Europe. From the German weekly magazine, Der Spiegel 12.20.2025 in a commentary titled" Trump and Putin, partners in malice."

"The tone Trump strikes toward Europe oscillates between pity, contempt and open hostility. .... "The Trump administration sometimes couches its criticism in the language of concern.......  In practice, though, this means the U.S. government is now officially supporting right-wing populist forces from Stockholm to Madrid. “Cultivating resistance” is the phrase used in the document – which, to the ears of European politicians, sounds suspiciously like regime change.." The article continues that NATO is no longer "burden sharing" with the US when it comes to provisions of armaments. NATO in effect is only sharing nuclear defense with US support, and now  Europe is on its own for assistance for non nuclear defense.  Earlier, Trump had threatened to destroy Article 5 of the NATO treaty  if Europe did not contribute at least 2% of their GDP to their own self defense (these are not "dues" as Trump had deceptively claimed, but a commitment). Europe rose to that and complied ...and exceeded the 2% so now Trump says...it is all 100% yours, on your own, no burden sharing. He has defacto succeeded in destroying the Atlantic alliance, in a repeat of the stupidity of the isolationists of the past century. I